61 STONE, C. J., dissenting. scribed oath of allegiance with the reservation or qualification that they would not, as naturalized citizens, assist in the defense of this country by force of arms or give their moral support to the government in any war which they did not believe to be morally justified or in the best interests of the country. See United States v. Schwimmer, 279 U. S. 644; United States v. Macintosh, 283 U. S. 605; United States v. Bland, 283 U. S. 636. In each of these cases this Court held that the applicant had failed to meet the conditions which Congress had made prerequisite to naturalization by § 4 of the Naturalization Act of June 29, 1906, c. 3592, 34 Stat. 596, the provisions of which, here relevant, were enacted in the Nationality Act of October 14, 1940. See c. 876, 54 Stat. 1137, as amended by the Act of March 27, 1942, c. 199, 56 Stat. 176, 182-183, and by the Act of December 7, 1942, c. 690, 56 Stat. 1041, 8 U. S. C. §§ 707, 735. Section 4 of the Naturalization Act of 1906, paragraph "Third," provided that before the admission to citizenship the applicant should declare on oath in open court that "he will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and bear true faith and allegiance to the same." And paragraph "Fourth" required that before admission it be made to appear "to the satisfaction of the court admitting any alien to citizenship" that at least for a period of five years immediately preceding his application the applicant "has behaved as a man of good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the In applying these provisions in the cases mentioned, this Court held only that an applicant who is unable to take the oath of allegiance without the reservations or qualifications insisted upon by the applicants in those cases manifests his want of attachment to the principles of the Constitution and his unwillingness to meet same STONE, C. J., dissenting. 328 U.S. the requirements of the oath, that he will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and bear true faith and allegiance to the same, and so does not comply with the statutory conditions of his naturalization. No question of the constitutional power of Congress to withhold citizenship on these grounds was involved. That power was not doubted. See Selective Draft Law Cases, 245 U. S. 366; Hamilton v. Regents, 293 U. S. 245. The only question was of construction of the statute which Congress at all times has been free to amend if dissatisfied with the construction adopted by the Court. With three other Justices of the Court I dissented in the Macintosh and Bland cases, for reasons which the Court now adopts as ground for overruling them.1 Since this Court in three considered earlier opinions has rejected the construction of the statute for which the dissenting Justices contended, the question, which for me is decisive of the present case, is whether Congress has likewise rejected that construction by its subsequent legislative action, and has adopted and confirmed the Court's earlier construction of the statutes in question. A study of Congressional action taken with respect to proposals for amendment of the naturalization laws since the decision in the Schwimmer case, leads me to conclude that Congress has adopted and confirmed this Court's earlier con 1 In the opinion of the writer there was evidence in United States v. Schwimmer, 279 U. S. 644, from which the district court could and presumably did infer that applicant's behavior evidenced a disposition, present and future, actively to resist all laws of the United States and lawful commands of its officers for the furthering of any military enterprise of the United States, and actively to aid and encourage such resistance in others, and this the district court presumably concluded evidenced a want of attachment of the applicant to the principles of the Constitution which the naturalization law requires to be exhibited by the behavior of the applicant, preceding the application for citizenship. 61 STONE, C. J., dissenting. struction of the naturalization laws. For that reason alone I think that the judgment should be affirmed. The construction of the naturalization statutes, adopted by this Court in the three cases mentioned, immediately became the target of an active, publicized legislative attack in Congress which persisted for a period of eleven years, until the adoption of the Nationality Act in 1940. Two days after the Schwimmer case was decided, a bill was introduced in the House, H. R. 3547, 71st Cong., 1st Sess., to give the Naturalization Act a construction contrary to that which had been given to it by this Court and which, if adopted, would have made the applicants rejected by this Court in the Schwimmer, Macintosh and Bland cases eligible for citizenship. This effort to establish by Congressional action that the construction which this Court had placed on the Naturalization Act was not one which Congress had adopted or intended, was renewed without success after the decision in the Macintosh and Bland cases, and was continued for a period of about ten years.2 All of these measures were of substantially the same pattern as H. R. 297, 72d Cong., 1st Sess., introduced December 8, 1931, at the first session of Congress, after the decision in the Macintosh case. It provided that no person otherwise qualified "shall be debarred from citizenship by reason of his or her religious views or philosophical opinions with respect to the lawfulness of war as a means of settling international disputes, but every alien admitted to citizenship shall be subject to the same obligations as the native-born citizen." H. R. 3547, 71st Cong., 1st Sess., 2 H. R. 3547, 71st Cong., 1st Sess., 71 Cong. Rec. 2184; H. R. 297, 72d Cong., 1st Sess., 75 Cong. Rec. 95; H. R. 298, 72d Cong., 1st Sess., 75 Cong. Rec. 95; S. 3275, 72d Cong., 1st Sess., 75 Cong. Rec. 2600; H. R. 1528, 73d Cong., 1st Sess., 77 Cong. Rec. 90; H. R. 5170, 74th Cong., 1st Sess., 79 Cong. Rec. 1356; H. R. 8259, 75th Cong., 1st Sess., 81 Cong. Rec. 9193; S. 165, 76th Cong., 1st Sess., 84 Cong. Rec. 67. STONE, C. J., dissenting. 328 U.S. introduced immediately after the decision in the Schwimmer case, had contained a like provision, but with the omission of the last clause beginning "but every alien." Hearings were had before the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization on both bills at which their proponents had stated clearly their purpose to set aside the interpretation placed on the oath of allegiance by the Schwimmer and Macintosh cases. There was opposition on each occasion. Bills identical with H. R. 297 were introduced in three later Congresses. None of these bills were reported out of Committee. The other proposals, all of which failed of passage (see footnote 2, ante), had the same purpose and differed only in phraseology. 3 5 Thus, for six successive Congresses, over a period of more than a decade, there were continuously pending before Congress in one form or another proposals to overturn the rulings in the three Supreme Court decisions in question. Congress declined to adopt these proposals after full hearings and after speeches on the floor advocating the change. 72 Cong. Rec. 6966-7; 75 Cong. Rec. 15354-7. In the meantime the decisions of this Court had been followed in Clarke's Case, 301 Pa. 321, 152 A. 92; Beale v. United States, 71 F. 2d 737; In re Warkentin, 93 F. 2d 42. In Beale v. United States, supra, the court pointed out that the proposed amendments affecting the provisions of the statutes relating to admission to citizenship had failed, saying: "We must conclude, therefore, that these statutory requirements as construed 3 Hearings on H. R. 3547, pp. 12, 22, 29-57, 73-109, 169-180; Hearings on H. R. 297, pp. 4-7, 10, 12, 15-19, 41-48, 53-56, 66-81, 147, 148. Hearings on H. R. 3547, pp. 57-65, 73, 146-169, 181-212; Hearings on H. R. 297, pp. 85-140. 3 H. R. 1528, 73d Cong., 1st Sess.; H. R. 5170, 74th Cong., 1st Sess.; H. R. 8259, 75th Cong., 1st Sess. 61 STONE, C. J., dissenting. by the Supreme Court have congressional sanction and approval." Any doubts that such were the purpose and will of Congress would seem to have been dissipated by the reenactment by Congress in 1940 of Paragraphs "Third" and "Fourth" of § 4 of the Naturalization Act of 1906, and by the incorporation in the Act of 1940 of the very form of oath which had been administratively prescribed for the applicants in the Schwimmer, Macintosh and Bland cases. See Rule 8 (c), Naturalization Regulations of July 1, 1929.6 The Nationality Act of 1940 was a comprehensive, slowly matured and carefully considered revision of the naturalization laws. The preparation of this measure was not only delegated to a Congressional Committee, but was considered by a committee of Cabinet members, one of whom was the Attorney General. Both were aware of our decisions in the Schwimmer and related cases and that no other question pertinent to the naturalization laws had been as persistently and continuously before Congress in the ten years following the decision in the Schwimmer case. The modifications in the provisions of Paragraphs "Third" and "Fourth" of $ 4 of the 1906 Act show conclusively the careful attention which was given to them. • Section 307 (a) of the Nationality Act, 8 U. S. C. § 707 (a), provides that no person shall be naturalized unless for a period of five years preceding the filing of his petition for naturalization he "has been and still is a person .. attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the United States." Section 335 (a) of the Nationality Act, 8 U. S. C. § 735 (a), provides that before an applicant for naturalization shall be admitted to citizenship, he shall take an oath in open court that inter alia he will "support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; . . . and . . . bear true faith and allegiance to the |